The Starry Rift, edited by Jonathan Strahan

A short while ago, on my other blog, I asked for suggestions for introductory texts to science fiction for younger readers. I received quite a few useful replies, many of which I’m still following up. By coincidence, this anthology (published by Viking/Penguin) was mentioned on BoingBoing shortly afterwards, so I ordered it immediately, and decided to read it myself first, to see if it would be suitable for my ten-year-old daughter, who had expressed an interest in SF/fantasy (thanks to Doctor Who).

According to the publishers, this is for ages 12 and up, which is about right, because my daughter has an advanced reading age (she’s reading, and enjoying, Katharine Kerr, and also tackled Stephen Baxter’s H-Bomb Girl). Having read this, I’m fairly sure my daughter will find some of this quite hard to understand, though there are certainly stories she’ll “get” straight away. Still, it would be remarkable if she liked everything in here the first time she read it. The idea is to discover new writers, and to follow and develop your own tastes, and to perhaps return to the volume at a later date and discover some more.

The old Aldiss-edited Penguin Omnibus of Science Fiction did the job for me when I was a younger reader, and it’s fitting that this collection is from the same publisher. My old copy of Aldiss is over 30 years old and extremely dog-eared

I recently reviewed another Jonathan Strahan collection, Eclipse 1, and – as with that volume – I’ve got no problem with the selection of writers here, who include familiar names such as Stephen Baxter, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Gwyneth Jones, Ian McDonald, Garth Nix and Alastair Reynolds. You can read more about the book at the editor’s own blog. In fact, they’re all prominent, excellent SF writers and all have back catalogues worth exploration. As a sampler of or introduction to contemporary SF, it would be hard to find anything better than this. It’s remarkable to me how many of these writers are British-born. I don’t know if that reflects a bias on Strahan’s part, or whether the British are punching above their weight in the world of science fiction.

So, in what ways is this collection aimed at younger readers? They’re certainly not being patronised here, or otherwise talked-down-to. Like all the best SF, some of this pushes you to understand some tricky ideas. What these stories have in common is that the protagonist(s) are usually young people, making them accessible to the target demographic.

Among others, I enjoyed Garth Nix’s play on vampire hunting (featuring one of the older protagonists), “Infestation,” and the deep space adventure-horror of “The Star Surgeon’s Apprentice,” though I think my favourite is the last one in the collection, “Pinocchio” by Walter John Williams, which kept me up past bed time so I could finish it in one sitting. How my daughter will cope with the idea of people uploading themselves into gorilla bodies, I don’t know. Take it in her stride, probably. I was thinking as I read it that it would make a good discussion point for an ‘A’ level Media Studies class.

If there isn’t the variety of voices and viewpoints here that I’m used to with the Gardner Dozois anthologies (which is at least partly down to the familiarity with his tastes I’ve developed over many years and volumes), it’s because of the common thread supplied by the young protagonists. I also started to feel uneasy after a while, especially in the stories that heavily featured gaming and an online existence, because I realised how much I’ve been sheltering my kids from some aspects of our modern technological world. No game consoles round here. I’m starting to feel like one of those people who doesn’t have a TV.

Good stuff, and certainly enough interest and entertainment for readers of all ages. I’m really chuffed that I got this. My only quibbles are that, first, it doesn’t advertise itself anywhere on the cover as a book suitable for younger readers; and, second, that each author’s short explanation for the story might have helped understanding if it was included at the beginning rather than the end of each entry. But those are minor quibbles, and once you know the author’s note is there, you can always cheat and read it first.

Recommended.

The Shadow Isle by Katharine Kerr

I bought this one to read on holiday, but then it kept calling to me and I couldn’t resist picking it up (if you do read this book, you’ll know exactly which scene I’m referring to).

Not too long ago, there were indications that the previous entry in the Deverry series, The Spirit Stone (reviewed here in April), was going to be the last, and then this volume was announced, but even this is not to be the last. According to an author’s note in the book, there is still one more to come.

Like the previous volumes, this one picks up the story more or less exactly where it left off. This is, if you get the UK version, Book Six of the Dragon Mage; or, if you get the US version, Book Three of the Silver Wyrm.

One character has been transported to Haen Marn, the island that mysteriously vanished in an earlier volume. Others have joined the Ancients in the West Lands, while still others face the threat from yet more Horsekin raiders on the border. Meanwhile, apprentice magicians are learning their trade and Dallandra is still puzzling out the problem of turning a human-turned-dragon back into a human.

It is of course all silly fantasy stuff, but it’s far better written and more consistent and thoughtful than strangers to the genre might think. My daughter has started reading this series (she’s up to volume 4 of the 14 published so far), and she looks forward to reading what she considers “the best bits,” the scenes with Jill and Rhodry. She asked me if Jill and Rhodry were in this new one and I said, “Er…. no…”, because I didn’t want to give too much of the story away. The real answer is, “Er… yeah… sort of…”

Unlike earlier volumes, there are no flashbacks here, so this all takes place in the same part of the time-line. This volume didn’t suffer from the lack of flashbacks, but doesn’t feel quite as textured as earlier volumes. Like other long-running series I’ve read, we’re perhaps not moving on quite as quickly, or as often, as we could. We’re here for just a couple of seasons, really, whereas you might prefer to see things skipping along towards a climax at this stage. It feels very much like marking time.

I’m still missing the map, and I’m still suffering lack of sleep because there are no real chapter markers, and it’s hard to find a good moment to stop reading.

Whatever you do, don’t start reading here, but if you have read this far, you won’t want to miss this one, and the next (and last?).

Gridiron by Philip Kerr (also published as The Grid)

I’ve blogged elsewhere about the pleasures of reading an out-of-date techno-thriller like this. Gridiron was published in 1996, back when a 486 was the pinnacle of home computing and Apple were in the throes of switching from the 60×80 architecture to the PowerPC. Floppy disks were still standard for storage and CD-ROM drives were being hailed as the future. (This novel has had a name change from The Grid to Gridiron, or is it the other way around? Anyway, there are examples of both available on the second-hand listings.)

This is a Crichton-like techno-thriller set in and around a new-build “smart” office block, architect-designed for the Chinese Yu corporation in Los Angeles and pejoratively nicknamed The Gridiron. The ultra-modern tower features an enormous tree in its sky-high atrium, and much tech wizardry, all controlled by the building’s brain, an artificial intelligence called Abraham. Running counter to all this technology is the superstitious mumbo-jumbo of Feng Shui, and a warning from the architect’s Feng Shui consultant that surrounding the tree with a square koi carp pond (among other Feng faux pas) is inauspicious.

You can see it coming a mile off, of course: what, a building whose lifts, heating and ventilation, doors, toilets, and security systems are controlled by a self-programming, self-replicating artificial intelligence? What could possibly go wrong?

The pleasure in the narrative revolves around the many creative ways the (mostly venal, arrogant, and unsympathetic) human characters are dispatched by the smart building, some of which are supposed to be funny/ironic, though I didn’t exactly find this to be a barrel of laughs. The theme of the book is an interesting one, though: that people will on the one hand dismiss Feng Shui for the superstition it is, while putting absolute faith in a technology (the neural network of the artificial intelligence) they barely understand.

Certainly recommended if you feel like you can’t wait for the next Crichton, and available for very little money second-hand.